Esquire Closes Signature Deal, Lifts Loans to $3.43 Billion

The Tip Desk · November 8, 2026 · 4 min read

Net interest income was $53.5 million in the third quarter as the Chicago acquisition added two months of activity and organic litigation loans kept expanding.

Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc. (ESQ), the financial holding company for Esquire Bank, National Association, completed its acquisition of Signature Bancorporation, Inc. on August 1, 2026, and reported a combined balance sheet of about $4.75 billion in assets, $3.31 billion in loans and $3.92 billion in deposits on a $466.1 million purchase price.

The combination was about 10% accretive to tangible book value and produced $246.9 million of goodwill and a $49.3 million core deposit intangible. Core systems conversions are targeted for April 2027. The company said there has been no material client attrition to date.

Net income was $17.5 million, or $1.57 a share, compared with $13.0 million, or $1.49 a share, in the second quarter. Excluding $8.9 million of pretax merger expenses ($7.1 million net of tax) and $938 thousand of discrete tax benefits related to share-based compensation, adjusted net income was $23.6 million, or $2.12 a share. Reported returns on average assets and equity were 1.73% and 11.11%; adjusted returns on average assets and tangible equity were 2.34% and 23.10%.

Net interest income rose $22.2 million, or 70.6%, to $53.5 million from the year-ago quarter, as average interest-earning assets grew $1.64 billion, or 79.7%, to $3.70 billion, of which about $1.19 billion related to Signature. Net interest margin compressed 22 basis points to 5.74% from 5.96% in the prior linked quarter. The company attributed the decline primarily to the merger and said acquired assets and liabilities at fair value contributed about 6 basis points positively for two of the three months. Average loan yields fell 41 basis points to 7.57%, which the company said was primarily due to the composition of acquired Signature loans.

Average loans increased $1.36 billion, or 88.7%, to $2.89 billion, with about $903.9 million from Signature. Organic litigation-related average loans rose $420.0 million, or 44.2%, to $1.37 billion. Average deposits increased $1.49 billion, or 80.6%, to $3.34 billion, including $1.08 billion from Signature. Litigation-related average deposits grew $398.5 million, or 31.8%. Cost of deposits including noninterest-bearing demand deposits rose 10 basis points to 1.13%, primarily due to the merger. The loan-to-deposit ratio was 86% at September 30.

Period-end loans increased $1.52 billion, or 80.1%, to $3.43 billion from June 30, of which $1.38 billion came from Signature. Organic litigation-related loans rose $159.6 million, or 48.9% annualized, to $1.46 billion and were 42.5% of total loans, down from 68.1% in the prior linked quarter. Since the August 1 close, loans increased $111.4 million, or 20.1% annualized. Period-end deposits increased $1.80 billion, or 82.5%, to $3.98 billion, including $1.65 billion from Signature. Noninterest-bearing demand deposits totaled $1.11 billion, or 27.9% of total deposits. Since the close, deposits rose $55.0 million, or 8.4% annualized.

Noninterest income totaled $7.9 million, or 12.8% of total revenue, up $1.7 million from the year-ago quarter, of which $1.5 million related to Signature’s existing banking platform and commercial client base. Payment processing income was $5.4 million, up $375 thousand from the year-ago quarter; the company said legacy fee growth was muted due to merchant risk profile and composition. The platform processed $10.5 billion in card volume across 152.2 million transactions for 94,000 merchants. Administrative service payments were $1.1 million.

Noninterest expense increased $17.6 million, or 95.9%, to $36.0 million versus the year-ago quarter, reflecting two months of Signature operating expenses of $5.1 million, $8.9 million of merger expenses, $1.8 million of core deposit intangible amortization, and continued personnel and technology investment. The efficiency ratio was 58.6% including those items; the adjusted efficiency ratio was 41.1%.

The allowance for credit losses was $44.7 million, or 1.30% of loans, versus 1.37% a year earlier. The provision was $1.8 million. Nonperforming loans were $8.6 million, or 0.25% of loans, including $5.1 million of legacy Esquire loans and $3.5 million of acquired Signature loans, plus $1.0 million of other real estate owned. Common equity tier 1 was 12.95% and tangible common equity to tangible assets was 10.91%.